It’s a misconception that “you need to talk about it to get it off your chest.” It’s a subtle thing though, to understand the difference between someone who needs to describe something because they feel stressed by internalizing it, versus someone who is better off not being made to.

“Some might also claim that people like Marier help, if only by providing a person to talk to or provide company to those with depression or PTSD. My response to that is that while this may be the case, it does not justify the fact that they endanger lives and health through administration of fake medicine. “

Even without making judgment calls about which is more important to treat, the mental/emotional or physical injuries, let’s just take a step back from this and think. If you are going to treat someone’s PTSD or Depression, who do you want? Some guy that really is just someone to talk to, or a trained Psychologist who can actually do something effective about the psychological problems? Talk therapy is just as useless for psychological ailments as homeopathy is for physical ones (but thankfully doesn’t seem to have some of the potential negative effects that homeopathic remedies can have).

In other words, this person isn’t even helping the emotional problems of these folks in the way he needs to, he’s just taking up space that could be filled by someone useful.

        DV82XL said:

Haiti is the home of voodoo, and it would take more than homoeopathic chatter about dilutions to impress this lot. The local quacks fill you full of raw rum and still beating chicken hearts, a syringe with vitamin C doesn’t cut it with this crowd.

I suppose that is true, but this guy seems like he could easily be mistaken for a legit doctor. I mean, if you’re in Haiti and you see a white foreign guy speaking English and giving people IV’s, you might assume he’s one of the real doctors who came as part of the relief operation.

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Hahaha. Great joke.

        DV82XL said:

Haiti is the home of voodoo, and it would take more than homoeopathic chatter about dilutions to impress this lot. The local quacks fill you full of raw rum and still beating chicken hearts, a syringe with vitamin C doesn’t cut it with this crowd.

True, although one thing I’m always stuck with when there are some of these disiasters is you get a small influx of western “yuppie” types who think that they’re helping but really just get in the way. They’re the ones who need air conditioning and end up making things worse by coming in and staying in the few remaining descent hotel rooms and then using things like generators, satellite phones and laptops to blog to everyone back home about how good the work they are doing is.